Northside Realty Has Lion?s Share

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RISMEDIA-NRRE VOL 16-4 April 2000

Northside Realty Has Lion?s Share

By Beth Bresnahan, NRRE Senior Writer

Of the Power Brokers in Atlanta, Northside Realty has established itself as a king of the real estate jungle.

“I can?t think of any weaknesses in our company,” says Terry Morris, president of the locally owned Northside Realty. “The world is moving so fast today, that our focus is not on the competition, but on our clients. Our goal is to stay ahead of the competition and continually assess what our strengths and weaknesses are, but right now we are totally focused on our clients? needs.”

Morris, a 25-year veteran of the industry and a luminary among his peers, says Northside is using a number of business strategies to accomplish this goal. The first step, he says, is understanding the demographic profile of who his clients are.

“When I think about our customers as transferring executives, many are in the Baby Boom generation and have often been through the relocation experience several times,” Morris says. “They have a lot of practice at it and have come to expect a certain level of service. Today, our clients have the knowledge of technology and the tools to participate in ways they haven?t been able to until now.”

Morris says the range of assistance his relocating clientele wants, varies greatly. He says some want almost no assistance, preferring to do all the research and steps of the transaction themselves through the Internet, while others are very interactive with his agents through e-mail and welcome professional assistance in all phases of the process. The key to retaining the business of all customers is being able to meet needs at every level, Morris says.

“However they want to approach the relocation process, we have to be prepared to deal with that,” he says. “We can remain on the cutting edge of the service industry by being innovative and advance by offering the most personal service.”

For example, Morris says the most important concept the agency needs to grasp is to determine what value the customer places on the service offered. “What the customers? expectation of what we?re going to do for them and what the value of that exchange is, is what we focus on,” Morris says. “Our emphasis at Northside is on full service and creating an unequaled customer experience in the buying and selling process ? whether it’s residential, commercial, apartment locating services ? we put together a platform for it.”

And the difference between Northside service versus the dot-coms, he adds, is being able to intelligently guide the client from the searching stage to the closing process. “Whether we?re working with a rental or buying situation, it is a very emotionally charged experience,” Morris says. “We are charged with relocating the transferee quickly and smoothly so that they have minimal anxiety and most importantly, get back to work as quickly as possible. It’s not just about providing information.”

Another way Northside is differentiates itself from the competition is through its new alliance with Home-Link Services, Inc., a home services company that connects home buyers with just about any service they need, such as plumbing, electricity or landscaping.

“It?s a very technical platform that allows us to manage a number of partner relationships,” Morris says. “We are giving clients a choice within a pre-selected range of partners who are held accountable to a high level of service.”

What’s more, an in-house move coordinator (PMC) then enters the picture, acting as an assistant to clients by helping them through the home warranty and inspection processes. Every time the PMC communicates with the client, that information is e-mailed to the agent so the agent is never out of the transaction loop. And after the closing, Northside then provides a Web-based software system to clients so that they can access their files at any time.

“This eliminates the secrecy of what information is available to the client,” Morris says. “For example, let?s say the home owner decides to remodel the kitchen. We already have pre-selected sub-contractors that we hold accountable for service. Furthermore, in six months or six years should a client decide to access company services, the agent is notified and can follow up and ask if everything went well or if there is any further assistance the client needs.

“It?s a cool system,” he adds.

Since Northside has implemented Home-Link, Morris says 22 Broker Licensees, who last year closed 250,000 transaction sides, have signed on withthe system. By July, he hopes to launch a Web-based system that would include links from Northside?s Web page to sites such as GE, where clients would be able to order appliances from home and have them delivered and installed with no hassle.

This kind of technology-based system is one of the hallmarks of the company, Morris says. He says his company had one of the first real estate Web sites in 1995 that included listings. Going back even further, Northside had installed a local area network to provide greater assistance to its agents in the field. From there it went to wide area support to connect all its 800 agents in 20 offices and most recently high-speed Internet and Intranet access.

But with all the change in the industry toward technology, Morris believes that old-fashioned customer service is the ultimate way to keep customers coming back.

“Our attitude toward technology is that it’s the latest component to make the transaction a success,” he says. “While others may stress over technology alone, we?re saying, ?Technology will enable us to do a better job and create more business through a higher level of personal customer service. “I find it a great time to be a part of this company and this industry.”

But, he says, despite Northside?s awards and accolades, he has no sense of arrival.

“We?re not resting on our laurels. We get up every day to see how we can continue growing.”

Northside Realty offers one-stop shopping to its clients through its residential, relocation, mortgage, insurance, commercial, home inspection, utility connection and home warranty services. Its 1999 sales volume is listed at $2 billion with 11,000 transaction sides.

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Saturday, March 20, 2010